Each guide is just four pages of clear, focussed and accessible help to anyone wanting to make our shared world a better place. They are based on my 30 years of working in advocacy and campaigning, using tried and tested models and tools. They can be download for free under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence (that means that you can use, share and reproduce them for non-profit use, providing that Ian Chandler is acknowledged as the author).
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Mini-guide #1: Advocacy & Campaigning – an overview
Defining key terms and giving an overview of different approaches to advocacy and campaigning (as well as the common weaknesses of much advocacy), mini-guide #1 also introduces the Advocacy & Campaigning Cycle and the associated Planning Pathway that will make your planning more effective and efficient.
Mini-guide #2: Know what you want to change
The foundation for successful advocacy and campaigning is to know exactly what it is that you want to change – clear, specific objectives shape your choice of strategies and messages. “If you don’t know where you are going to, any road can take you there”. Mini-guide #2 expands on phase 1 of the Advocacy & Campaigning Cycle and shows you how to identify, research and analyse problems and develop policy recommendations and change objectives.
Mini-guide #3: Identify the best influencing strategy
Covering phase 2 of the Advocacy & Campaigning Cycle, mini-guide #3 looks at the five main approaches to influencing decision-makers in the public and private sector, and gives you tools to help you to understand the process of the change you want to see alongside the internal and external context for your campaign. This groundwork enables you to select your approach, target audiences and messages.
Mini-guide #4: Stakeholder analysis
Stakeholder analysis is one of the essential tools for selecting your target audiences and developing your influence map or theory of change. Mini-guide #4 explains in detail how to perform a version of stakeholder analysis specifically designed for advocacy and campaigning.
Mini-guide #5: Corporate vulnerability
It is hard to influence any target unless we can understand what makes them tick. However, the only experience that many campaigners have of the corporate sector is as customers. This leads them to adopt consumer action as the default strategy, ignoring the potential of other strategies. Mini-guide #5 explains the five key relationships that companies have to manage, giving you an opportunity to identify where they are most vulnerable to pressure.
Mini-guide #6: Lobbying
Not all advocacy uses lobbying as a strategy, but many do. The stakes are high in a lobbying meeting, so it is important that they are planned and conducted well. Mini-guide #6 takes you through the seven steps of effective lobbying, helping you to make the most of the opportunities and avoiding the pitfalls.
Mini-guide #7: Action Planning templates
It can be a challenge to develop action plans for engagement with target audiences that are both creative and in line with your overall strategy. The template set out in mini-guide #7 can be used as part of your planning process to help maintain a strategic focus during the action planning stage.